Shield with Buffalo Bull and Thunderbird
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The highly abstract, visionary imagery on this large, early shield portrays a yellow-bodied Thunderbird, guardian of war. Ten scalps, represented by wide wavy lines on the right, together with the buffalo bull on the bottom, manifest the shield’s sacred power and protection against the enemy. When a Crow man named Spotted Tail sold this shield to collector Stephen G. Simms in 1902, he told him it had been passed down over five generations.
Artwork Details
- Title: Shield with Buffalo Bull and Thunderbird
- Date: 1800–1825
- Geography: United States, Montana
- Culture: Crow
- Medium: Buffalo rawhide, pigment, native-tanned leather
- Dimensions: Diameter: 25 7/8 in. (65.7 cm)
- Classification: Hide-Implements
- Credit Line: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (71765)
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing